Me, Making an Annual Lifestyle Change

This is me with Johnny Lion. I was always taking him away from my brother who my mom thought Johnny originally belonged to when she found this picture of me as a baby with said lion. I was right. All those years, I was right! Johnny was mine. Me Me I I!! I am the one who's been a cat freak all my life!

I am trying hard to be a good health doo-bee. I have actually managed to have my annual “internal” exam consistently for about 6 years or so and got my annual eye exam on board consistently about 3 years ago. Once my friend K helped me get into the dentist’s office (I have a major MAJOR phobia and cried the day I made the first appointment – it had been almost 14 years since stepping foot in a dentist place), I have been going regularly every 6 months for about 5 years now. Now I am working on my general overall health by starting this year to see my primary care physician, you know, the doctor I have listed on my insurance card but never go see. All these appointments typically occur in August, my birthday month. It just makes it easier to remember when to schedule them and has the added benefit of starting my actual new year off on the right foot health-wise.

So, that being said, I had my list of questions in my sweaty hand when I went to go see my physician yesterday. He also had the results of my cholesterol test that my “internal” doctor requested because he had flipped through my chart last week and found he had nothin’ on me! I asked for that news right away. And it was good news! My overall cholesterol is high (but not too high) but my “ratio of bad to good cholesterol is great”. He showed my bad # which I can’t remember, but I do remember my good # which is 81.

Dr: “Do you work out?”
Me: “Should I be?”
Dr: “With a number like that, it indicates that you do.”
Me: [blinking several times, gaping like a fish, and kinda stuttering] “You’d think.”
Dr: “You can lie if you want with this number like this.”
Us: laughing! Yes laughing with a doctor. Course he’s like Doogie Hauser (sp?).
Dr: “The combined number is 2.8. This is very low and very good. You want it be as low as possible.”
Me: “Okay whatever you say.”
Dr: embarks on a long technical explanation of the numbers and good and bad cholesterol.
Me: “So, do I have enough little Hoover vacuums to clean up the crap left behind by the bad cholesterol?”
Dr: [giving me a funny look] “Yes.”

I guess he doesn’t talk to enough people who take techie talk and make it into a visual word picture one can easily digest. I do this all the time. Guess it’s because all the work I do with kids that makes me tend to translate things into verbal pictures. I, myself, need visual word pictures for complex stuff.

Anyhoo, he answered my bevy of questions, gave me a old-fashioned type regimen for one of the concerns, a new prescription, renewed an old prescription, advice for another, and is going to see if my insurance will cover an MRI for the headache issue. Scary, but we want to make sure my brain is working normally don’t we? (What’s normal anyway? – No headaches, tumors, brain bleeds, or detached arteries? If so, that would be nice.) He mentioned a possible IV that “might’ go along with the MRI and I got a bit woozy (anything sharp entering a vein will do that to me). He said the office would let me know and then we’d get one scheduled. We’ll see.

Me: “Do you need anything else as this is my annual visit?”
Dr: [blinked for a few seconds] “No, see you next year after discussing the MRI results.”
Me: “Barring anything coming up before then!”
Laughing again. Thank god no more bloodwork for now!